February 20, 2010
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Drowning Ruth: A Novel (Oprah's Book Club), by Christina Schwarz
Get Free Ebook Drowning Ruth: A Novel (Oprah's Book Club), by Christina Schwarz
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Review
“Gripping . . . A story of deep family rivalries . . . A remarkable debut.”–The New York Times Book Review“COMPELLING . . .The immediately impressive thing about Drowning Ruth is not the author’s talent, though that is apparent within the first few pages, but the ambitious narrative scheme she’s devised to tell her tale.”–San Francisco Examiner & Chronicle“Schwarz pays meticulous attention to her characters. . . . Drowning Ruth offers tender gifts–the shore, the lake, the island, all keeping their own mysteries.”–The Washington Post Book World
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From the Inside Flap
"POWERFUL . . . SUSPENSEFUL . . . RICHLY TEXTURED . . . [A] CHILLING, PRECOCIOUSLY GOOD START TO A BRIGHT NEW NOVELIST'S CAREER.""-The New York Times "[A] gripping psychological thriller . . . In the winter of 1919, a young mother named Mathilda Neumann drowns beneath the ice of a rural Wisconsin lake. The shock of her death dramatically changes the lives of her daughter, troubled sister, and husband. . . . Told in the voices of several of the main characters and skipping back and forth in time, the narrative gradually and tantalizingly reveals the dark family secrets and the unsettling discoveries that lead to the truth of what actually happened the night of the drowning. . . . Schwarz certainly succeeds at keeping the reader engrossed."-FRANCINE PROSE" Us Weekly "DEFT AND ASSURED . . . [WITH] STRONG CHARACTERS AND A PLOT LONG ON TENSION AND SURPRISES."-"Time "A strong sense of portent and unusually vivid characters distinguish this mesmerizing first novel about horrifying family secrets and nearly annihilating guilt. "Drowning Ruth is a complex and rewarding debut."-ANITA SHREVE Author of "The Pilot's Wife "RIVETING . . . A VERY SUSPENSEFUL TALE, ONE THAT WILL KEEP READERS UP SHIVERING IN THE NIGHT.""-USA Today
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Product details
Series: Oprah's Book Club
Paperback: 368 pages
Publisher: Ballantine Books (July 31, 2001)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0345439104
ISBN-13: 978-0345439109
Product Dimensions:
5.5 x 0.8 x 8.2 inches
Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review:
3.8 out of 5 stars
772 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank:
#126,523 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
I'd like to give this 3.5 stars. I absolutely loved the story for the first 3/4 of the book. Then Amanda pulls the typewriten notebook pages from Ruth's purse. When Ruth informs her those are from when she made mistakes typing at the Owens residence, there is no discussion about it. Amanda simply launches into her plan with which she needs Ruth's help. This is despite the fact that several pages earlier the reader is told Amanda didn't know Ruth skipped school to fill in for Imogene at work. That plot error bothered me. The ending seemed to come upon us a little too fast and I was sorely disappointed when Ruth stayed behind with the verbally abusive and obviously demented Amanda while Imogene fulfilled her dream life in Chicago. I wanted better for Ruth throughout the novel. Overall, a great read.
This story is told mostly by Amanda, who has raised Ruth, the other narrator, since her mother drowned when she was very young.. Amanda lives on a farm with Ruth. When her sister's husband comes home from WW1, he finds that his wife has drowned. He is frantic trying to find out if his wife, Mattie, had cheated on him because he sees a girl in the nearby town that resembles her. This is another strand in this unpleasant story. He has no plans to live the rest of his life on the farm. Amanda is so attached to Ruth that there is nothing else in life that she's interested in. A whole list of very unlikeable characters. I feel that the story dragged on and the resolution to the story was very unsatisfying.
This was one of the best stories I have read in a long time. So often an avid reader can predict where a story is going by the middle of the book-but Christina Schwarz really does a wonderful job of weaving a web that you just can't put all the pieces together until the last few pages.The story takes place in Wisconsin and begins with Amanda, who is a nurse in the early 1920's, experiencing difficulties focusing on her patients at the hospital where she works. This is viewed as odd by her co-workers as she has always been viewed as a "natural" at her profession and well regarded by all. But suddenly she isn't coping, and she is unable to focus, and soon is becoming ill, and sleeping all the time on the job. The Dr. she reports to suggests she take some "time off" and visit her family back on the farm--he attributes her troubles to having recently lost both her Father and Mother. So off she goes, home to the farm and to her sister Mattie whose husband is fighting in the war, and her toddler niece, Ruth. This is where the journey begins and the deceit starts.........I would recommend this book--it's a real page turner. I for one will be reading more of Christina Schwarz.
Christina Schwarz has worked very hard indeed to create her bestselling novel, "Drowning Ruth." A light epic novel that carries a family over the course of a quarter century starting from just before the first world war through the start of the second world war. All of our central characters are female: two sisters, a daughter, a local friend who becomes close to the daughter and the haunting consequences of life, never brought on by sin or by vengence but rather the typical difficulties of life.The plot is one that unfolded for me within the first seventy pages and held no surprises for me, though as a writer myself my current book utilizes a similar technique. Besides, given honest, caring human condition, the story really could not have unfolded any other way. In regard to plot and heart break, I compare it to McCullough's "The Thorn Birds". In regard to the beauty of each crafted sentence it mixes between Barbara Kingsolvewr and Shiurley Jackson.That in itself is enough to encourage you to read this book. The entire novel is the result of an act done udring a moment of horror; this is true melodrama in the sense that we watch how ordinary people react to extraordinary situations. Nlt every melodrama is a "Sweeney Todd". This one is subtle, rich with intelligence and curushingly beautiful."Drowning Ruth" is compelling and becomes a fast read. Some may claim this to be a feminist work or perhaps historical fiction though I do not. This is a carefully crafted novel about human condition and the things poeople had to do in order to avoid cultural outcasting during the twentie's and thirties. Our Central Character is a sad woman named Amanda (Mandy and Amy as well, depending upon whom is supplying her knick-name) a college educated registerred nurse who suffers from what is surely post traumatic stress dissorder the onset of which occurs during the last year of war while working a Chicago hospital. However the onset of this illness is not at all war-related and a single evening destroys any chance Amanda had to ever have a "normal" life. She returns home to her sister, Mathilda (Mattie - the use of knick names are abundant on all women except for Ruth. I'll let you decider why.)Because the story isn't told chronologically, we get to know Mattie well, despite the fact that she drowns in the lake where her family owns an island within the early pages of the book. Amandea takes on the care of Ruth and then, when Mathilda's husband,Carl returns home from France, a wounded soldier, they settle into a new routine; a family where each of the three members are an island.The island on which they live becomes both a fortress and a metaphor for safety. As with all the men in this book, Carl is dispensed with quietly after a misunderstanding that causes him to leave for work and Amanda and Ruth are once again alone together moving from the farm on the mainland to the cottage on their island.This is a book about communication, love, dedication and family values. This is a book that assures us that even one hundred years ago, people were the same as they are today. This is a book that causes you to silently urge the characters toward choices because we are given more information than they are. So as Amanda and Ruth move through their lives the multitudes of roads not taken would appear to be straight and well matted, while the roads they DO travel are circuitous and require a bit of work with a syth. Ms Schwarz chooses a place to stop telling her story though it is clear that the story could continue on- perhaps even into the 21st Century. But less is more and Schwarz knows this. We get to know our characters so well that we can clearly understand what the next fifty years will bring anyway."Drowning Ruth" is beautifully crafted with a voice that sings.
I like unreliable narrators, which I feel Amanda is. Even when it’s not being told from her first-person POV, much of this is Amanda’s story and I took everything I learned through her with a grain of salt. Amanda, Ruth, Mattie, Carl, Imogene, and Arthur are interesting characters, and they kept me engaged. The ending surprised me, and I liked it much more than any of the variations I’d imagined as I read. The book felt a little long, which is why I gave it four instead of five stars.
I really liked this book. In the beginning I was a little thrown off by all the secrets and mystery of it all. You get this impression about the main characters and it's hard to root for any of them. As you read you are taken into the past, forward to the present and then sent back to a different time in the past multiple times as the author gives you bits and pieces of what really happened. Little by little the truth behind it all unfolds and you learn the true spirit of the characters.As I was reading I really only liked Carl. He seemed innocent and kind-hearted compared to the women in this book. By the end I loved every last character. It shows you, we as humans are not just one-dimensional, but more capable of so many things. We aren't just good or bad. There is so much gray area. Judgment depends on circumstance.
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